New York and Vicinity

Lithographed folding pocket map (8 2/8 x 24 6/8 inches) depicting most of Manhattan, Wards Island, Blackwells Island, Queens and Brooklyn, and the corresponding New Jersey shore, with a vignette of the arms of the City of New York upper right, with original hand-colour in full (some short separations at folds, some light browning). Original tan cloth, gilt (front cover detached). An attractive and detailed map of Manhattan at the close of the Civil War, as the City struggled to regain the vibrancy and wealth of pre-war years. Showing the area south of 135th Street showing Central Park, its reservoir and paths; the Jersey shore from Bulls Ferry to Jersey City; the East River from the Old Bridge into the Bronx through Astoria to Brooklyn; all major Ferry routes to and from the city. "While the Civil War pitted North against South, some locations confounded that stark regional split. New York was one of those places, a city of divided loyalties and complex class, racial, and economic interests. While most New Yorkers supported the war at its outset, significant forces urged conciliation with the Confederacy. From Wall Street financiers, to commercial shippers, to merchants selling manufactured goods to a South that produced little of its own, the New York City economy depended heavily on southern cotton. The National Conscription Act exacerbated long-simmering class tensions and the deprivations brought on by wartime inflation; it was especially unpopular among the city's immigrant white working class. When it was enacted on July 11, 1863, it touched off the worst rioting Americans had ever seen. People and buildings representing Protestant missionaries, Republican draft officials, war production, wealthy businessmen, and African Americans suffered the worst of the crowds' wrath, and after four days more than 119 New Yorkers were dead. Soon after the riots were quelled by federal troops, the northern war effort finally started to bear fruit and the city's economy rebounded (aided by the re-legalization of the cotton trade with the rebel states)" (CUNY, The Lost Museum online).…